Container Closure System

ABSTRACT

The present invention is directed to a tamper resistant closure system for a container having a body, a mouth or opening and a neck portion. The container is fitted with a cap such as a screw-on or snap-on type to cover and seal the mouth or opening. The cap is configured with a sidewall extending beyond the top sealing portion of the cap thereby defining a peripheral rim for a cavity or an open void created therewith. Fitted over the cap and preferably at least the neck portion of the container is a protective overwrap, such as heat shrinkable thermoplastic band which extends beyond the cap sidewall. The engagement between the band and the cap and container is attained by shrinking the band in tight conformance around the cap and at least the neck portion of the container, with overwrap material extending past the cap sidewall, such extension providing a finger grip tab that may easily be pulled to remove the overwrap when initially opening the container. The extension of the cap sidewall prevents the overwrap material from securely adhering to the top portion of the cap which would make removal or peeling difficult. In this way, the tightly secured protective overwrap provides tamper resistance yet enables easy and convenient means for removal by the intended user.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.61/156,608, filed Mar. 2, 2009.

FIELD OF INVENTION

This invention relates to a closure system for use on containers whichhold consumer products such as foods, beverages, personal care items,and pharmaceuticals. The closure system includes a cap or lid and anouter wrap or overwrap such as a shrink band engaged tightly around thecap and preferably at least the neck portion of the container to provideboth tamper resistance and evidence. The outer wrap functions to sealthe filled and capped container thereby preventing inadvertent openingand spilling of its contents. Disruption or removal of the outer wrapprior to purchase of the product by the consumer would signal that theoriginal packaging is no longer intact and the package may have beenopened and possibly tampered with.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Tamper evident bands, wraps or sleeves are used to seal and protectpackage containers and are extensively used in a wide variety ofcontainment applications, in particular for consumer products such asfoods, beverages, toiletries, pharmaceuticals, and the like. In order toensure that such product packages have not been opened or tampered withprior to purchase by the consumer, a tamper-evident seal is provided oncontainers for such items. Such tamper-evident seals are applied to theproduct containers at the time of packaging the product after a closurehas been applied to the filled product container, such seal intended toremain intact until the ultimate purchaser removes it. In this mannerthe purchaser is generally assured that the product within the packageis in the same condition as when it was initially packaged and has notbeen tampered with at any point between its manufacture and purchase.Any opening or attempted opening of the container results in visuallydiscernible alteration or destruction of the tamper-evident seal.Consumers are generally aware to only purchase products with intactpackaging. Indeed it is common for products particularlypharmaceuticals, personal care products and cosmetics to have a warningon the label directing consumers to not purchase or use a product if theseal is broken or missing.

One type of tamper-evident seal used on containers comprises aheat-shrinkable member such as a band or wrap applied to each container.Such heat-shrinkable members are typically formed as annular shaped,cylindrical tubular segments which are positioned on the containers, andare thereafter heated so that the members heat-shrink into conformancewith the associated containers. For tamper resistance andtamper-indication, the heat-shrinkable members are positioned such thatthey shrink into close-fitting association with the container cap orlike closure so that removal or attempted removal of the cap isdifficult and results in permanently deforming or removal of theassociated heat-shrinkable member. For example, consumer productpackages that utilize screw-on or snap-on caps use tamper evident bandsto ensure that consumers receive unopened merchandise and the contentshave not been adulterated after packaging. The heat-shrinkable membersare fitted to containers such as to form closely-fitting sleeves. Suchsleeves may be provided for protecting and rigidifying the containeritself The cap and the bottle neck are adapted to be engaged by theshrink band or wrap in a way that protects the bottle from beingtampered with and when threaded caps are used, helps prevent inadvertentloosening of the caps during shipment.

The close fit and adherence of the heat-shrinkable member to the cap andcontainer improves tamper resistance but in many cases makes initialopening of the package difficult for the consumer. The shrink wrapmaterial is essentially adhered to the surface of the package therebypresenting a fair amount of difficulty, particularly for an elderly orarthritic person to easily remove the wrap and open the package.Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a closure system whichincludes a cap and a protective overwrap such as a shrink band, whichare configured to provide tamper resistance as well as a convenient andeasy means for removal of the protective overwrap by the intended user.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a first embodiment of the presentclosure system for use on a bottle, comprising a double walled cap withinverted truncated cone shape and shrink band or wrap over the cap andneck portion of the bottle.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a conventional package comprising atruncated cone shaped cap with a flat top.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of the cap and shrink band of FIG. 1 and FIG.4 is a side view thereof

FIG. 5 shows an enlarged cross-section of the cap and shrink band ofFIG. 1.

FIG. 6 illustrates a second embodiment of the present closure systemcomprising a truncated cone shaped cap with upper sidewall extendingbeyond the top of the cap.

FIG. 7 illustrates a third embodiment of the present closure systemcomprising a cylindrical shaped cap with upper sidewall extending beyondthe top of the cap.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to a closure system for a containerhaving a body, a mouth or opening and a neck portion, wherein theclosure system is configured to provide tamper resistance as well asbeing easy to open. The container is fitted with a cap such as ascrew-on or snap-on type to cover and seal the mouth or opening, the capcomprising a cap top and sidewall extending from said cap top to a capbottom and further having an extension beyond the cap top therebydefining a peripheral rim for an open void created from said sidewallextension and said cap top. Fitted over the cap and preferably at leastthe neck portion of the container is a protective overwrap, such as heatshrinkable thermoplastic band which extends beyond the cap uppersidewall extension The engagement between the overwrap band and the capand container is attained by shrinking the overwrap band in tightconformance around the cap and at least the neck portion, with the bandmaterial extending past the cap sidewall, such extension providing afinger grip tab that may easily be pulled to remove the overwrap wheninitially opening the container. The cap sidewall extension prevents theoverwrap material from securely adhering to the flat top portion of thecap, which would make removal or peeling difficult. In this way, thetightly secured protective overwrap provides tamper resistance yetenables easy and convenient means for removal by the intended user.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

While the specification concludes with claims particularly pointing outand distinctly claiming the invention, it is believed that the presentinvention will be better understood from the following description.

Herein, “comprising” means that other steps and other components whichdo not affect the end result can be added. This term encompasses theterms “consisting of” and “consisting essentially of.”

As used herein, the word “include,” and its variants, are intended to benon-limiting, such that recitation of items in a list is not to theexclusion of other like items that may also be useful in the materials,compositions, devices, and methods of this invention.

As used herein, the words “preferred”, “preferably” and variants referto embodiments of the invention that afford certain benefits, undercertain circumstances. However, other embodiments may also be preferred,under the same or other circumstances. Furthermore, the recitation ofone or more preferred embodiments does not imply that other embodimentsare not useful, and is not intended to exclude other embodiments fromthe scope of the invention.

As used herein, the terms “outer wrap” and “overwrap” are usedinterchangeably and encompass forms such as “shrink wrap”, “shrink band”“shrink neckband” and plastic/thermoplastic band or wrap.

In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention suchas shown in FIG. 1 and in greater detail in FIGS. 3, 4 and 5, a shrinkband (30) is applied to a package (10), i.e., comprising a container(15) and cap (20), such that the band overlaps the junction between thecontainer body and the outer lowermost edge of the cap sidewall (21),thereby encompassing the space therebetween, with the shrink bandextending below this juncture along the body of the container and abovethe junction along and beyond the upper portion of the cap sidewall. Theterm “cap sidewall” as used herein is equivalent to the term “cap skirt”as used in the packaging art. The upper portion of the cap sidewallextends beyond the cap top (22), the sidewall extension and the cap topcreating a cavity or open void. The top portion of the sidewallextension defines the peripheral rim or lip of the cavity or open void.The height (25) of the sidewall extension may be uniform throughout ornon-uniform, measuring at least about 1 mm, or in some embodiments fromabout 2 mm to about 20 mm, or preferably from about 5 mm to about 15 mm.Having the sidewall of non-uniform height creates a rim with anundulating or wave-like appearance. The shrink band is cut to extendbeyond the sidewall with sufficient material to form a finger grip tabthat facilitates tearing off the shrink band. The shrink band extension(35) is at least about 1 mm, preferably at least about 2 mm or more pastthe peripheral sidewall rim. The band is shrunk onto the cap andpreferably at least the neck portion of the container forming aclose-fitting overwrap which protects the package from being tamperedwith and helps prevent inadvertent loosening of the cap during shipment.Although not required, areas of longitudinal mechanical weakness in theshrink band, such as one or more lines of perforations, may be provided,which together with the finger grip tab create a tear-away portion thatmay be easily removed by a user. Removal of the shrink band prior topurchase of the packaged product would indicate possible tampering.

The present invention can comprise any of a variety of containers,bottles or bottle types (with screw cap, snap cap, etc.), boxes, orreasonably rigid objects depending upon the specific products to bepackaged. The shape, size and type of material from which the containerbody and closure or cap are constructed may be widely varied withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention. Likewise the particularshrink band material utilized as well as the method of application maybe varied without departing from the spirit of the invention. The term“container” is used throughout as an exemplary label for items capableof being surrounded by a shrink band and is not limited to a single typeof “bottle” per se. Examples of containers include jars, glass bottlesand blow molded bottles made of various plastic materials such aspolyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene terephthalate(PET). A bottle shape is used for ease and clarity of illustration inshowing the advantages of the present invention. The terms “closure”,“cap”, or “lid” are used interchangeably and refer to the packagecomponent fitted for sealing the opening or dispensing portion of thecontainer. The cap for use in bottle containers may made of variousmaterials including glass or plastic such as polypropylene and may be ofvarious shapes, including truncated cone such as a frustum illustratedin FIG. 6, essentially cylindrical (FIG. 7) or inverted truncated cone,i.e., with the sidewall flaring outward (FIG. 1). The inverted cone suchas illustrated in FIG. 1 is particularly advantageous as it providesimproved handleability of the bottle, the cap together with the neckdefining a comfortable grip portion.

In certain embodiments, the cap or closure includes a child resistancefeature, which is required for packaging certain products such asmedicines and non-ingestible compositions to prevent inadvertent accessby children or other persons who may not have the mental capacity tocomprehend the threat of serious injury from contact with or improperuse of such products. Examples of child resistant closures that may beused are described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,941,268; issued to Owens, et al.;U.S. Pat. No. 4,099,639 issued to Boxer et all; U.S. Pat. No. 4,134,513issued to Mumford; U.S. Pat. No. 4,913,299 issued to Petro; U.S. Pat.No. 4,948,002 issued to Thornock et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,413,233 issuedto Hall; U.S. Pat. No. 5,836,466 issued to Briere, et al.; U.S. Pat. No.6,036,036 issued to Bilani et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 6,102,223 issued toMontgomery.

The shrink band material may comprise one of a variety of heatshrinkable, thermoplastic materials known in the art, such as orientedpolystyrene (OPS), polyvinylchloride (PVC), polyethylene orpolypropylene. U.S. Pat. No. 5,067,612 to Tsuchiya et al. and U.S. Pat.No. 5,201,463 to George disclose typical wrap packaging materials andmethods well known in the art. Preferred for use herein are materialssuch as PVC and OPS, because very thin layers of such materials canprovide high strength bands, which can easily be molded or contractedusing a heat source at about 300 degrees Fahrenheit. These conditionsare generally acceptable in that no damage occurs to most containers orgoods contained therein. PVC, OPS and like materials have also proven tobe good printing surfaces for package indicia e.g., labeling, decorationand graphics, or instructions. The shrink band around the neck portion,i.e., a neckband, generally consists of a continuous tubular web of apreprinted heat shrinkable film. In one method of application, the filmgoes first through an accumulator where the web is conditioned in acontrolled humidity temperature environment as well as providing surgeprior to the applicator. The film is formed into a tube and then woundonto a core. If desired, a tear-away portion is perforated into the filmvia a rotary cutter as the film is unwound from the core. The roll oftubing is then cut to length. Each cut piece is then placed on thebottle neck. The neckband is tacked in place via a blast of hot air andthen transferred to a heat or steam tunnel where the neckband is shrunkby effect of the high temperature inside the tunnel Glue tack orpre-shrinkage heat tunnels may also be used for the heat shrinkingoperation.

The normal procedure for initially opening a container in accordancewith the present invention would be to tear off the shrink band, usingthe finger grip tab to facilitate tearing off the shrink band, thusexposing the cap. Thereafter, the fact that the shrink band has beentorn off indicates that the original packaging is no longer intact andthe container may have been opened. Obviously, once the shrink band istorn off, it would be difficult to replace it onto the package in itsoriginal condition; its removal other than by the intended user providestamper evidence.

A package such as shown in FIG. 1 is used for containing a mouthwashproduct. The package comprises a blow-molded polyethylene terephthalatebottle, a polypropylene cap and printed oriented polystyrene (OPS)shrink neckband with a longitudinal perforation. In consumer testing,over 60% of consumers definitely saw an advantage for the presentpackage as being easier to remove the shrink neckband compared to othermouthwash packages having conventional caps with flat tops, i.e.,without the present extended upper sidewall, such as illustrated in FIG.2 wherein the shrink band (30 b) is adhered to the flat top portion (22b) of the cap (20 b).

FIG. 6 shows an alternate embodiment of a package (15 c) comprising atruncated cone shaped cap (20 c) with the upper sidewall (21 c)extending beyond the cap top (22 c). The shrink band (30 c) additionallyfeatures a perforated or tear line (40 c).

FIG. 7 shows a further embodiment of the present closure systemcomprising a cylindrical shaped cap (20 d) with upper sidewall (21 d)extending beyond the cap top (22 d). The shrink band (30 d) in thisembodiment wraps the entire package (container and cap) and features alabel printed thereon.

For consistency, the same number is used to designate each correspondingelement in the Figures illustrating the embodiments herein. Thus forexample, the cap is designated as 20 in

FIGS. 1, 3, 4, and 5; 20 b in FIG. 2; 20 c in FIGS. 6 and 20 d in FIG.7. The cap sidewall is designated 21, 21 b, 21 c and 21 d, respectively;the cap top is designated 22, 22 b, 22 c and 22 d, respectively and soon.

The dimensions and values disclosed herein are not to be understood asbeing strictly limited to the exact numerical values recited. Instead,unless otherwise specified, each such dimension is intended to mean boththe recited value and a functionally equivalent range surrounding thatvalue. For example, a dimension disclosed as “40 mm” is intended to mean“about 40 mm.”

All documents cited in the Detailed Description of the Invention are, inrelevant part, incorporated herein by reference; the citation of anydocument is not to be construed as an admission that it is prior artwith respect to the present invention. To the extent that any meaning ordefinition of a term in this document conflicts with any meaning ordefinition of the same term in a document incorporated by reference, themeaning or definition assigned to that term in this document shallgovern.

While particular embodiments of the present invention have beenillustrated and described, it would be obvious to those skilled in theart that various other changes and modifications can be made withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the invention. It is thereforeintended to cover in the appended claims all such changes andmodifications that are within the scope of this invention.

1. A closure system for a container having a body, a neck portion and anopening, said closure system comprising a) a cap fitted to cover andseal the opening of said container, said cap comprising a cap top andsidewall extending from said cap top to a cap bottom and further havingan extension beyond said cap top thereby defining a peripheral rim foran open void created from said sidewall extension and said cap top andb) an overwrap in tight conformance around the cap and at least the neckportion, of said container, said overwrap extending beyond saidperipheral rim.
 2. A closure system according to claim 1 wherein thesidewall extension has a height of from about 1 mm to about 20 mm.
 3. Aclosure system according to claim 1 wherein the overwrap extends atleast about 1 mm beyond the peripheral rim of the open void.
 4. Aclosure system according to claim 1 wherein the overwrap comprises heatshrinkable thermoplastic material.
 5. A closure system according toclaim 4 wherein the overwrap heat shrinkable thermoplastic material isselected from oriented polystyrene (OPS), polyvinylchloride (PVC),polyethylene or polypropylene.
 6. A closure system according to claim 1wherein the overwrap is a shrink band having indicia printed thereon. 7.A closure system according to claim 1 wherein the overwrap is a shrinkband including a weakened portion comprising one or more lines ofperforation.